The Ralph McInerny Center for Thomistic Studies will offer a three-year program in philosophical studies that will provide a wide-ranging introduction to classical philosophy. This program will consist of six courses over three years (during the fall and spring semesters), each course consisting of 6 or 7 two-hour sessions, including lectures and time for discussion.

This program is intended for generally educated citizens who wish to develop a deeper grounding in philosophy. No previous formal study in philosophy is required. Our goal is to provide people with sound philosophical “tools” that will help them to evaluate and form judgments about problems and issues facing them and their fellow citizens, drawing especially on the ethics and metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas.

OUR FIRST COURSE will be an introduction to ancient Greek philosophy. We will begin September 27, 2006 (Wednesday) from 7 to 9 p.m., at the McInerny Center office at 616 E Street, NW, Suite 1214. Short recommended readings will be provided online, along with suggestions for further reading. OUR SECOND COURSE will briefly survey the main periods in the history of philosophy, from Medieval to Early Modern until contemporary philosophy. And it will focus particularly on two absolutely uniquely great figures like Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. OUR THIRD COURSE will deal with the basic principles in natural philosophy and logic as the needed background for the study more advanced areas, like metaphysics, in the FOURTH COURSE, and ethics and political theory in the FIFTH COURSE. Finally, in the SIXTH COURSE, we will end the program by addressing the public square and the current issue.

Means: criminal prosecution, civil procedures and threat of civil litigation for facilitating acts, prohibition of public benefits or participation in public programs, taxation, education (general and in schools), age limits, time and place restrictions

About our Program in Philosophical Studies

A Basic Program in Philosophical Studies must have several virtues. It should give a good and reasonable idea of why and how philosophy is different from science and from every other human intellectual activity, including the arts. It should deal with at least some of the major philosophical issues debated in the history of philosophy. It should take into account at least some of the most important philosophers in history, showing the basic differences in their approaches, methodologies, and conclusions about reality. It should take into account ancient Greek philosophy because the best introduction to philosophy is the history of its birth. As Jacques Maritain wrote, “an account of the historical origins of philosophic thought is the best method of acquainting beginners with the problems of philosophy, introducing them into the world, entirely new to them, of rational speculation, and furnishing them, incidentally, with much extremely useful knowledge.” At the same time, a good program in philosophical studies can never be just historical. Rather, it should always show how every issue and historical debate is related to, or can help the understanding of, the problems of our contemporary world.

A program in philosophical studies should focus on the differences between philosophy, on the one hand, and physics, mathematics, history, poetry, the arts, and other techniques, on the other. It should touch upon several branches of philosophy such as metaphysics, philosophy of nature, ethics, and logic. It should address the birth of moral philosophy with Socrates, Plato’s philosophy of ideas, Aristotle’s and Aquinas’ philosophical realism, St Augustine’s view on creation, the birth of modern philosophy with Descartes, Kant’s transcendental philosophy, etc.… These are all key authors and ideas in the history of philosophy, and their (sometimes very different and even conflicting) achievements can help us better understand both ourselves and the world around us. A program in philosophical studies should start with the birth of philosophy in Ancient Greece; but, even while studying historical issues and authors of the past, it should always focus on the most important questions of our contemporary culture and lives: the existence of God and of the human soul, the concepts of person and freedom, the concept of truth, the space and time issue, the point of our duties and of our happiness.

Philosophy should not be approached as if it were just a technique to master. On the contrary, learning philosophy is a matter of achieving, from time to time, genuine insights into reality – insights that will eventually (sometimes after many years and in unexpected ways) reveal themselves to be very useful in our lives and studies. This is what we should expect from this program: to achieve some insight into the reality of our own being and of the things around us.

-- Jan. 28: Law and Morality: What is the Legitimate Scope of Political Power Regarding Issues of “Personal Morality”? (Christopher Wolfe)-- Feb. 11: The Moral and Political Status of Human Life in its Earliest (Embryonic and Pre-Embryonic) Stages (Joshua Hochschild)-- Feb. 25: Environmental Stewardship and Agriculture: Ethical Principles for Relating to Non-Human Life (Joshua Hochschild)-- Mar 11: The Death Penalty: Human Dignity and Capital Punishment (Michael Pakaluk)-- Mar 25: The Family in Public Policy: Families Ideal and Actual, and What Should Government Do? (Pat Fagan)-- Apr 15: Immigratration (Christopher Wolfe)-- Apr 29: Homosexuality and Public Policy (Christopher Wolfe)